I live in the UK but still know that this topic will never reach the US media channels. I base this on the simple fact that most of the US citizens
solely want to hear what happens next in the democrats and republicans childish cat fights. Politics is all and end all in the US especially around
about this time........ I do not mean the US ATS member's welll not all of them anyway

Fingers crossed this hits UK news, BUT here there
trying to distract with the Olympics and the Queens jubilee

And even then, if there was no water and if the debris in the pool caught fire, they are still encased in zirconium cladding, which holds the
fission products within.

From your source. That statement shows that he really has limited understanding of the processes involved or the threat posed by the (S)pent (F)uel
(P)ool or SFP at #4. The threat posed is the same one that occurred at other Spent Fuel Pools. A little different too..

#4 reactor building has been rocked by repeated earthquakes, at least one explosion and the fuel in the SFP of #4 reactor building has already
partially melted. All this damage combined has made the integrity of the pool itself questionable. It is leaking. It is being topped off by seawater.
The problem is they are having a hard time determining how more earthquakes will affect the pool any further.

The idea is to reinstall a working crane so they can remove the fuel bundles from the pool and temporarily store them in the reactor well (which was
shut down at the time of the Quake in Mar. '11). They are in a race against time hampered by on site radiation, further jolts (which send everyone
running), and logistics of demo-ing out the old infrastructure to facilitate the installation of another crane.

The threat to the environment is actually bigger than the other plants at Fukushima and heres why. # 4 reactor was shut down for refueling at the time
of the quake. All the fuel that has ever been used in the reactor over its entire life span is still being stored in the pool. Plus the very "hot"
fuel they just removed from the well. Plus the new fuel they were going to install after cleaning and maintenance. That is more fuel by far than was
in #3 SFP when it went off. Plus some portion of it is MOX which contains Plutonium (the newer fuel rods).

The concern is that if the fuel sustains any more damage from further quakes that it could begin leaking more than it does already. Combine that with
the damage from the explosion therein and the decay produced by the already melted fuel at the bottom of the pool. This could create a situation
whereby the top of the water level lowers to the point that the top of the fuel rod assemblies in the pool become uncovered.

That is all it will take. As the tips of the fuel rods become exposed they begin to heat up. This begins to boil away more of the remaining water in
the form of steam that further lowers the water level that then exposes more of the fuel rods. The "hot" fuel that has recently been removed from
the reactor is the most likely to heat up and begin to compromise the Zircalloy cladding which crumbles away and falls to the bottom of the pool.
Followed by the fuel it self which also falls to the bottom of the pool and begins to reheat to criticality temperatures.

The more the water boils off the more fuel is exposed, heats up, catches fire and falls to the bottom, causing a "Corium" mass that begins to melt
out the bottom of the pool all the while sustaining an uncontrolled fission chain reaction production of isotopes and radionuclides. The only thing
that will stop it will be when the reaction is done or the singularity runs out of fuel. By then up to 50 tons of fuel will have volatilized in an
open air environment, the worst of all possible scenarios for nuclear power.

Since the fuel pool is open to the air instead of inside the reactor well and sealed in a building, there will be no explosion like in #3. Just an
open air Tepco corium smelting process that will produce a nuclear fog bank spreading to the atmosphere and ocean while simultaneously burning its way
into the ground below the building and maybe the ground water table too. This Mass of metal (elephants foot) although no longer burning in a reaction
will remain radioactively hot for... God only knows. Still producing steam whenever it encounters water or rain or salt water spray from a fire
engine. Additional exotic and rare elements are produced by using seawater as well.

This is what happened to the other three reactors already by the way, don't you know that? They are still emitting as well. Since March of last year,
in fact. Each is unique in the events that befell them and as well the measures used in an attempt to control the amount of radioactive contamination
released so far.

SFP #4 is a race against time to get the fuel into the reactor to contain and cool it more reliably before another melt down fission event occurs
there. It is potentially very serious if... But hey, we won't see it if it happens anyway because TEPCO has total control over the situational
awareness they let on to. Any information that comes from there about any of the reactors there has to "leak" to us (like the radiation).

You know where I learned all this? Right here on ATS. The ongoing Fuku thread.

There is a very simple reason why news outlets wont report on this.....

The economy......... it would probably do more damage to our economy than the actual disaster would do to our land, atleast if we keep the economy
strong/decent, we can afford the clean up, if we cant even afford that then we are up the creek without a paddle

I feel so bad about all of what is going on and not being reported.
I could list everything that is going on World Wide but me thinks I would fill the pages of ATS.
Nukclear was always a nightmare waiting to happen ever since the first A Bomb was dropped. Since then over 2500 have been tested.

Why? Why would any sane country or people actually think that Nukclear Power or Weapons would be desirable?
Death came from the Bombs radiation and now it comes from Power plants built with no foresight in where and how they should be built.

Actually they should of never been built and the Bomb either.

Now we in the US have found out that we can get rid of our spent uranium by putting into our ammo and using this same ammo against other countries
regardless of the results.

There has and will always be Radioactive fallout over our heads and getting into our food and water.
I wonder when, all people will actually stand up to fight these powers that reign over us?

It's like this comic strip that keeps coming to mind..

What if they gave a War and nobody came?

So;
What if they wanted to build these bombs and nobody wanted the job?
What if they wanted to build these power station and no body wanted the job?
What if everyone decided not to go to work and enrich the Rich any further.
What if the people of Japan all showed up at their Parlimant and closed the country down until their Overlords fixed the problem.

It has now become a World problem and the World is off on a drunk of killing each other over Oil.

This has become a Sick World and if we had another to go to we would do the same to it, never learning any lesson's from the destruction of this
one.

Nuke's kill and actually, what are they good for?

I thought they said if we had Nuke's there wouldn't be any wars or need for coal for power.
What's was with that?

We are spiraling downward on Mushroom Clouds and what seems as if the world took mushrooms and it is now on a Bad Trip.
Soon, very soon we may be glowing in the dark then maybe we will do something, but then it truly will be to late.

Poor Poor citizen's of the World, the End is on the Horizon. It is the EVENT HORIZON.

The troubled Reactor 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is at the centre of this potential catastrophe. The 1,535 spent fuel rods would become
exposed to the air and would likely catch fire, with the most-recently added fuel rods igniting first.

it ain't "potential catastrophe" -- it's Just upcoming $hit. each quiet day out there has been the yet another gift 4 humankind, but that cannot
be so everlasting.

Is there any kind of map or similar information showing the area of effects in the event of another earthquake/rods catching fire? It would be nice to
be able to estimate when and where the radiation will be spread. That way, adequate preparations could be made for survival. Please let me know!

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